Abandoned in New York City's Central Park, Waggit, a small terrier, is adopted into a pack of homeless canines. Tazar, the leader of the feral pack, is a wise, admirable patriarch who looks out for lost and stray dogs and teaches them the rules of survival. As a member of Tazar's band, Waggit manages to endure a harsh winter and escape many perils before finally being captured and placed in one of the city's stray animal shelters. There he is lucky to be rescued and given a new home with a more responsible owner. The novel celebrates the wild freedom of the feral dog pack, while also emphasizing the many hazards of urban life for homeless companion animals. Waggit's biography is like a Victorian orphan story (think Tom Jones or Oliver Twist): The hero is born into a good home, and then abandoned by mischance to a dangerous and squalid yet colorful and swashbuckling life of urban crime before finally being rescued back into respectability. Nearly all of the novel's external events are realistic. In the usual way of talking animal stories, however, the canine conversations contain ideas more complex than those one normally ascribes to the barking and body language of dogs. The story will appeal to young dog lovers and to devotees of New York City and Central Park. The layout of the park is simplified both in the story and on the accompanying map showing the locations of Waggit's important adventures.

- Walter Hogan, VOYA